Cascadia Research Collective

The Sounders gray whales of Puget Sound and Cascadia’s research efforts are featured on a new installment of Salish Sea Wild produced by the SeaDoc Society and hosted by Joe Gaydos. The show covers how some gray whales in years where they are experiencing high mortality and facing nutritional stress have discovered this key feeding area in northern Puget Sound.

Salish Sea Wild: The Case of the Wandering Whales Nearly half the entire population of Pacific gray whales passed away in the last eight years, but now they’re coming back. Join SeaDoc as we dive into the my...

Two reference genomes for false killer whales were recently made available as part of the Vertebrate Genomes Project. In October and November 2019, we collected skin biopsy samples from two different groups of false killer whales off Kona, and sent subsamples to Matthew Schmitz at the University of California, San Francisco, who established cell lines. Frozen cultured samples were provided to Phil Morin as part of the Cetacean Genomics Project, and these were the basis of the genomes. As noted by Phil, reference genomes like those just released for the false killer whale are the current best representation of the ~2.4 billion base pairs of the genome, including the DNA sequences, organization, and variation in the ~28,000 genes of the genome. Analysis of a single genome can:

* Identify complex gene families like the MHC complex, critical for immune response.

* Infer historical changes in population size associated with diversification and climate change, potentially useful for assessing risk of inbreeding depression and extinction.

* Identify genetic variation associated with evolved traits, such as ability to see colors, and dietary specialization.

* Identify genetic variation that can be used to develop genetic marker sets for population-level studies, e.g., relatedness and population structure.

* Inference of life-history characteristics such as life-span and age at maturity.

* Provide a reference for mapping genetic data from many individuals and other closely related species for population and evolutionary studies.

Check out the National Center for Biotechnology Information for more details - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/datasets/genome/GCA_039906515.1/ and https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/assembly/GCA_039906525.1/

Putting a fin to the genomes, a little bit about the individual whales themselves. One of them is from the Hawai‘i pelagic stock (HIPc856 in our catalog), part of a population known to have high levels of interactions with the pelagic deep-set longline fishery. HIPc856 is an adult male sampled in a group on October 31, 2019. Although 13 individuals were photo-identified from that encounter, all were new to our catalog and none of them have been seen since. The other individual is from the endangered main Hawaiian Islands insular stock (HIPc713 in our catalog), a population that has been declining in recent years. HIPc713 is a member of Cluster 3, first documented off O‘ahu in 2014 and seen 13 times since, most recently off Kona in September 2023. When first seen in 2014 she was a calf, but is now reaching adulthood. We hope these samples will help us better understand this species and these populations.

For those interested in marine mammal management along the west coast of the U.S., you may want to take a look at the recommendations from this year’s meeting of the Pacific Scientific Review Group. This is one of three regional advisory groups set up under the Marine Mammal Protection Act to advise NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service on marine mammal science and management issues. The annual meeting was in March, and over the last few months the PSRG refined a list of recommendations from discussions at the meeting. The recommendations letter, finalized last week, is available athttps://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/s3/2024-06/PSRG-2024-Recommendations.pdf

Many of the recommendations are related to research, including on sea otters, Bryde’s whales, spinner dolphins, false killer whales, spotted dolphins, northern elephant seals, harbor seals, gray whales, humpback whales, and fin whales. Many are related to management issues. A few of the headline recommendations are included below, and and some of the full recommendations are shown in the images, but please see the letter for full justification and details.

9. (PIRO) The PSRG reiterates its concerns for the lack of effectiveness of the 50-yard rule within important spinner dolphin resting bays and recommends the implementation of no-go areas in these habitats.

10. (PIRO) The PSRG reiterates its recommendation from 2023 that NMFS manages mortality and serious injury for the pelagic stock of false killer whales (FKW) over its entire range.

13. (PIRO) The PSRG recommends that NMFS investigate the degree and extent of tour operations undertaking swim-with activities with species other than spinner dolphins in Hawai‘i that may have resulted as an unintended consequence of regulating spinner dolphin swim-with operations.

14. (PIRO) The PSRG recommends that NMFS revisit categorization of the Hawaiʻi charter vessel and Hawaiʻi trolling, rod and reel fisheries in relation to spotted dolphin fishery interactions.

23. (WCR) The PSRG recommends that NMFS include fin whales and gray whales in the upcoming West Coast Take Reduction Team (TRT).

24. (WCR) The PSRG recommends that NMFS compile information on the number of vessels involved in, and spatial and temporal extent of, hook and line fisheries along the U.S. west coast, as a first step towards assessing the potential for cryptic bycatch of small odontocetes in these fisheries.

If you want to learn more about the Scientific Review Groups, details are available at https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/marine-mammal-protection/scientific-review-groups

In November last year we deployed a LIMPET satellite tag on a goose-beaked whale (Ziphius cavirostris), and as of today it is now our third-longest LIMPET tag deployment in Hawai‘i – today is it’s 200th day of transmitting. This map shows movements of this tagged goose-beaked whale over the last six and a half months – this individual has remained around the island of Hawai‘i for the entire period, reflecting that it is part of a resident, island-associated population. This map only shows the “good” quality satellite-derived locations – with deep water so close to shore around much of the island, many of the poor-quality locations appear on land, thus we have filtered them out.

Goose-beaked whales are the longest-diving mammal, and the species of whale known to be most sensitive to Navy sonars. We have been studying this species in Hawaiian waters since 2002, revealing the presence of a small, island-associated population.

If you want to see an amazing video of a goose-beaked whale breaching, taken from a drone, check out https://youtu.be/Wv5nte8oKfA

To learn more about this species, check out our species page - https://cascadiaresearch.org/hawaii-species/goose-beaked-whales/

Prior to this year the longest duration LIMPET satellite tag we’d had on a false killer whale was a 199-day deployment on an individual from the endangered main Hawaiian Islands population, tagged in 2011. In early April a tagged false killer whale from the Hawai‘i pelagic stock exceeded that record, and today is day 234 for this tag (the longest duration tag we’ve had on any species in Hawai‘i). While this individual has ranged widely, up to about 700 km west and south of where it was tagged, it keeps returning to the Geologists Seamounts west of Hawai‘i Island – Cross, Washington, Ellis, Perret, Jaggar, McCall, Cook, and others. This area is outside of the longline fishing exclusion zone around the main Hawaiian Islands. False killer whales from the Hawai‘i pelagic stock are the species of whale or dolphin most-frequently recorded as bycatch in the Hawai‘i-based deep-set longline fishery, and analyses of movements of this individual, and others in the group, will help inform bycatch mitigation efforts for this population.

To learn more about false killer whales in Hawaiian waters, check out https://cascadiaresearch.org/hawaii-species/false-killer-whales-hawaii/

A new publication lead by Georgie Whittome of University of St Andrews and that used data collected by Cascadia Research Collective, Mingan Island Cetacean Study, and Michael Fishbach, examines mortality and abundance of blue whales in the Gulf of California, one key part of their range. Abundance of blue whales in the overall Eastern North Pacific has been an important question Cascadia has been examining with our long term studies since it is unclear if this population is slowly increasing (as suggested by some of Cascadia’s work tracking identified individuals), or decreasing sharply (as suggested by ship surveys). Resolving this discrepancy will be the focus of some of the continued work by Georgie and other researchers at Cascadia. These results highlight the importance of tracking populations dynamics as changing environmental conditions affect the range and distribution of populations.

The paper was published in Marine Mammal Science and is available at http://doi.org/10.1111/mms.13132

Even though its "official" that the 2019-3023 gray whale unusual mortality event is closed/over, Cascadia is is still monitoring large whale mortalities.

Within the last week, Cascadia Research and collaborating organizations began this monitoring with examinations of the first two gray whale strandings of 2024 in Washington waters. A team led by Cascadia also responded to an entangled whale in Grays Harbor on 17 April.

Please visit our website to learn more.\
https://cascadiaresearch.org/announcement/post-unusual-mortality-event-monitoring-begins-in-washington-state-with-the-examination-of-2-dead-gray-whales-and-an-entangled-gray-whale-response/

False killer whales are our highest-priority species in Hawai‘i, and efforts to assess the population size and trends of the endangered main Hawaiian Islands insular population are critical. We collaborate with researchers at the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center for quantitative analyses to assess abundance and trends from photo-identification data, but raw catalog numbers from each year can also give us an indication of how the population may be doing. One critical indicator is how many new individuals are documented each year, relative to the total number of individuals documented. In 2023 the numbers do not look good – with 75 individuals in the population photographed in 2023 (about half the total population), only one was new to our catalog. This individual, designated HIPc1013, was photographed for the first time on September 16, 2023 off Kona, by Hawaiian Adventures Kona. This wasn’t a newborn calf, but rather a small juvenile, and was likely born in a previous year, but just not documented until 2023. HIPc1013 was seen with 11 other individuals that day, all from Cluster 3. HIPc1013 was not in close association with any adults, so we are not sure yet who the mother is.

Thanks to all the contributors to our false killer whale catalog in 2023. More than half the encounters and identifications came from citizen scientists, primarily captains and crew for various tour companies in Hawai‘i. We thank Hawaiian Adventures Kona, Dolphin Excursions, Jim Ward, Pacific Whale Foundation, Captain Zodiac, the Marine Mammal Research Program of the Hawai‘i Institute for Marine Biology, Wild Side Specialty Tours, Walton Souza, Mark Mohler, Dennis Fukushima, Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, Ben Caswell, Julie Harrington, Kaimana Ocean Safaris, GE Keoni Wagner, and Cory Fults for contributing false killer whale photos from Hawai‘i in 2023.

Thanks to Olivia Miller/Hawaiian Adventures Kona for allowing us to share this photo of HIPc1013

On his crossing from Kaua‘i back to O‘ahu after the end of our Kaua‘i field effort last month, Mark Mohler encountered a small group of false killer whales mid-channel, an area where we have few photos from. Mark was able to get ID photos of seven different individuals, and none of them match our false killer whale photo-ID catalog. This suggests the group is either from the open-ocean population (the Hawai‘i pelagic stock), or part of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands population. These two populations differ in terms of mitochondrial DNA – Mark obtained two biopsy samples from the group, so we are looking forward to the genetic results to see which population they are from.

Mark was added a Co-investigator under our NMFS research permit in December last year, allowing us to obtain biopsy samples of high priority species like false killer whales off O‘ahu going forward.

Another presentation at the 8th International Bio-logging Science Symposium this week is a collaborative effort among scientists from the U.S. Navy, Cascadia, the National Marine Mammal Foundation, and Southall Environmental Associates, examining behavior responses of Blainville's beaked whales to U.S. Navy training activity off Kaua'i. If you are at BLS8, stop by to see Elizabeth Henderson's poster - for those not there we share it here!

More information on the conference at https://bls8tokyo.net/

Three graduate students working with Cascadia are presenting this week at the 8th International Bio-logging Science Symposium in Tokyo. If you are at BLS8 please visit them at their posters – for those who are not there in person, we present the posters here.

Michaela Kratofil's poster on “Individual-level variation in habitat selection of endangered Hawaiian false killer whales through lenses of social structure and resource availability” will be presented Monday.

Hannah Clayton’s poster on “Feeding mechanics of a surprising intertidal predator, the eastern North Pacific gray whale”, and James Fahlbusch’s poster on “Blue whales feed at night when conditions are right”, will both be presented on Tuesday.

If you want more information on BLS8, check out https://bls8tokyo.net/

We are still getting data from all eight LIMPET satellite tags deployed on short-finned pilot whales off Kaua‘i earlier this month (as well as the one bottlenose dolphin). In addition to locations from the Argos satellite system, all the tags also obtain Fastloc®-GPS locations, which are more accurate than Argos locations, and dive data (maximum depth, duration, and shape of all dives over 50 m in depth). The Fastloc®-GPS locations and dive data are both picked up on the Argos receivers and by land-based receiving stations on both Kaua‘i and Ni‘ihau. Our hope for these tags is that they'll transmit long enough to get a complete record of location and behavior data before, during, and after the Navy's Submarine Command Course (which ended last week), to be able to assess any potential behavioral changes in response to sonar exposure.

This map shows location data from 7 of the 8 pilot whale tags over the last two weeks, clearly showing these whales are part of the resident, island-associated community of pilot whales.

For more information on the project check out https://cascadiaresearch.org/hawaii-update/feb2024/

This project was funded by the U.S. Navy as part of their Marine Species Monitoring Program - check out https://www.navymarinespeciesmonitoring.us/ for more information

Yesterday was our last day on the water for our Kauaʻi field effort. Over the last nine days we deployed 13 LIMPET satellite tags on four species - the map shows movements of nine of those individuals. We took over 25,000 photos, and also collected eight genetic samples (1 eDNA and 7 biopsies). Overall it was a very successful project!

We want to thank the 11 different volunteers that joined us, our collaborators with the Navy monitoring the hydrophone range, who directed us to many of the sightings (including both a pilot whale and bottlenose dolphin sighting yesterday where we were able to tag), and to the Navy's Marine Species Monitoring Program for funding the project.

Check out https://cascadiaresearch.org/hawaii-update/feb2024/ for more photos and information on this project.

Today we had our first encounter with rough-toothed dolphins for the trip. Normally this is our most frequently-encountered species of odontocete off Kaua'i, and we have been wondering where they have all gone! We also had a nice encounter with a competitive group of humpback whales. While we typically don't do a lot of work with humpbacks here in Hawai'i, today we deployed a LIMPET satellite tag on one individual (the primary es**rt in the competitive group) to track movements and behavior, got fluke IDs of four individuals (which we have submitted to Happy Whale), and collected two biopsy samples. Check out https://cascadiaresearch.org/hawaii-update/feb2024/ for more information on the project!

A close-up of the head of an adult male Blainville's beaked whale encountered off Kaua'i yesterday, showing the two erupted teeth (aka tusks), with a lot of stalked barnacles particularly on the right-side tooth. We suspect this tooth must have a lot of missing gum tissue along the trailing edge, providing additional anchoring sites for the barnacles.

With the help of scientists monitoring the Navy's hydrophone range, we encountered a group of five Blainville's beaked whales yesterday, were able to get good identification photos of all five, and we deployed a satellite tag on this individual.

Check out https://cascadiaresearch.org/hawaii-update/feb2024/ for more photos of this and other whales in the group and information on our Kaua'i field effort.

Prior to this trip we'd only encountered pygmy killer whales three times off Kaua'i or Ni'ihau, and only had identification photos of 32 individuals from these islands. Yesterday we had our fourth encounter and were able to get ID photos of about 20 individuals, as well as an eDNA sample. Unlike encounters with this species off O'ahu or Hawai'i Island, where there are small resident populations, there have been no re-sightings of individuals off Kaua'i or Ni'ihau, so we are excited to see whether all of these individuals are new to our catalog or might be individuals straying over from the O'ahu resident population.

This photo shows the parallel white scars that are commonly seen on pygmy killer whales, one of the easiest ways of telling this species apart from melon-headed whales.

Check out https://cascadiaresearch.org/hawaii-update/feb2024/ for more information on the project

Yesterday was our first day on the water for a field project off Kaua'i, our 21st off this island, and the start of the 26th year of our Hawai'i research project. We had great weather the first day, and encountered three groups of pilot whales (with the help of the Navy's hydrophone range) and were able to deploy three LIMPET satellite tags to study movements and behavior, before, during, and after the Navy's upcoming submarine command course. If you want to see updates on this project, check out https://cascadiaresearch.org/hawaii-update/feb2024/

This project is funded by the Navy's Marine Species Monitoring Program

This is a very good example of how science can directly inform management of fisheries bycatch of pelagic false killer whales. This recently published NOAA Technical Memo uses satellite tag data (including all of Cascadia's pelagic false killer whale tag data), genetic samples, fishery interaction data (from the NOAA observer program for the long-line fishery), and sighting data, to define a new management area for pelagic false killer whales. As noted in the conclusions, this addresses a mismatch between abundance and Potential Biological Removal (PBR) levels and where bycatch in the fishery actually occurs, and would start to allow for management of this stock both inside and outside U.S. waters.

The full report is available at https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/56119

We’ve just published a paper that describes both our approach to studying rare species in Hawai‘i and provides findings from a long-term study of pygmy killer whales, the only long-term study of this species in the world. This study demonstrates the value of citizen science contributions – more than half the photos used came from citizen scientists. It includes results from genetic analyses (of both stranded animals and biopsied free-ranging individuals), satellite tagging (both success and failures, including removal of tags by conspecifics), and photo-identification (including long-term re-sightings, movements among islands, and social network analyses). It shows that resident groups off O‘ahu and Hawai‘i Island share a common mitochondrial haplotype, and that mass strandings on Maui likely represent groups from an open-ocean population, among other things.

If you’d like a pdf of the paper, just let us know!

This study was a collaboration with the Southwest Fisheries Science Center, University of Hawaii Health and Stranding Lab, Wild Side Specialty Tours, and Paulphin Photography. We thank the following individuals and organizations for providing photos used in these analyses: Erin Adams, Russ Andrews, Jim Ault, Chuck Babbitt, James Begeman, Andrew Bergstrom, Kalea Bruce, Captain Zodiac (Colin Cornforth, Stacia Goecke, Shannon Harrison), Seth Conae, Sofia Dahl, Nicole Davis, Mark Deakos, Dolphin Excursions Hawaiʻi (Jenna Morris, Alexa Vitek, Veronica Franklin, Cam Grant), Tom Elliot, Landen Fletcher, Alicia Franco, Dennis Fukushima, Cory Fults, Beth Goodwin, Allison Gordon, Brittany Guenther, Cynthia Hankins, Hawai‘i Nautical (Brenna Gaddis), HDR Inc. (Mark Cotter, Craig Hawkinson), April Irvin, Kimberly Jeffries, Mark Johnson, Ali Lacuzzo, Jason Lafferty, Ryan Leinbach, Ed Lyman, Jeff Milisen, Dan McSweeney, Jeff Molder, Ocean Joy Cruises (Jim Ault, Manibuka Teaeki, Ash Wilhelm), Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, Pacific Whale Foundation (Stephanie Stack, Jens Currie), Doug Perrine, David Schofield, Malori Scrivner, Melissa Shontofski, Julie Steelman, Dai Mar Tamarack, The Dolphin Institute (Adam Pack, Aliza Milette-Winfree), Eldon Tipping, Julian Tyne, Deron Verbeck, Jim Ward, Kimberly Wood, Kelly Wright, Eden Zang, and Ann Zoidis, as well as Ākeamakamae Kiyuna for the ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi abstract.

Happy new year!

We are still tracking two of the 'pelagic' false killer whales that were tagged last year - these maps show the movements of these two individuals from October 31st through this morning. Most of their time has been spent relatively close to each other, although this morning they are almost 600 km apart. We've now been able to track this group for almost four months, when the first individuals were satellite tagged by Colin Cornforth on September 4th of last year. When the tags stop transmitting we'll begin analyses to look at spatial use in relation to longline fishing activity, among other things.

More information on the field project where one of these whales was tagged is available at https://cascadiaresearch.org/hawaii-update/nov2023/

False killer whales are our highest priority species in Hawaiʻi, both the endangered main Hawaiian Islands population and the offshore population that interacts with the offshore longline fishery. Our ability to assess how the main Hawaiian Islands population is doing depends a lot on citizen science contributions of photos. At the end of every year we’ve been preparing a summary of identifications by population and by social cluster (for the endangered main Hawaiian Islands population), and we are hoping there are more photos out there from 2023 (or from prior years!).

In 2022 there were photos from 38 different encounters from all contributors, and there were 227 identifications (not excluding within-year re-sightings) of 96 different individuals. Of the 63 distinctive individuals photographed in 2022 from the endangered main Hawaiian Islands population, there was only one new distinctive individual, illustrating how little recruitment there is into this population. If you have photos from 2023 that you haven’t sent in, or know anyone who might, please contact us!

Thanks to many individuals and organizations that have contributed false killer whale photos so far in 2023, including Captain Zodiac, Cory Fults, Dennis Fukushima, GE Keoni Wagner, Hawaiian Adventures, Jim Ward, Kaimana Ocean Safari, Mark Mohler, Veronica Franklin, Walton Souza, Wild Side Specialty Tours, Will Hildebrand, as well as Pacific Whale Foundation and the Marine Mammal Research Program University of Hawaii. If we’ve left out your name and you’ve already submitted false killer whale photos this year, our apologies (and please contact us to make sure your photos made it through!)

Thanks to Andrew Aggergaard/Hawaiian Adventures Kona for letting us use this photo, taken off Kona on July 2nd this year. This is HIPc216 in our catalog, an individual from Cluster 1 first identified on February 18, 1999 off Maui.

In August we had a field project off Kaua'i, sponsored by the U.S. Navy's Marine Species Monitoring Program, to tag several different species prior to a Submarine Command Course. A field report from that project has just been finalized and is available at the link below

The maps included here show locations from a tagged bottlenose dolphin over a 14-day period, and our vessel tracklines and sightings of different species during our seven days on the water. If you want a copy of the report, it is available athttps://cascadiaresearch.org/files/Baird_etal2023_Kauai_field_report.pdf

Information on the Navy's Marine Species Monitoring Program is available at https://www.navymarinespeciesmonitoring.us/

Thursday was our last day on the water for our Kona field effort, and we are just starting to get caught up. We spent 17 days on the water, covered 1,957 km, had 37 encounters with 11 different species of cetaceans (and one Hawaiian monk seal), took 44,266 photos, deployed 11 satellite tags, collected 16 samples (biopsies, eDNA, and squid), and obtained drone footage from three species (Cuvier's beaked whales, dwarf s***m whales, and short-finned pilot whales).

A lot of big accomplishments this trip. We re-located the pelagic false killer whales tagged in September, collected two biopsies, and tagged three individuals - two of the tags were depth-transmitting tags, and we've obtained the first dive data for the pelagic population! We also tagged four Cuvier's beaked whales (in three different groups). We'd previously obtained movement data from 10 tagged Cuvier's in Hawai'i, and the last time was in 2015, so the data obtained will be a substantial increase in what we know about movements of individuals in this population. As well as being able to examine how the four individuals may have (or may not have) interacted over time, we also obtained dive data from one of the four. From the Cuvier's, we also collected three eDNA samples and one biopsy sample. Amazingly enough, Cuvier's beaked whales were the second-most frequently encountered species this trip, with seven sightings - the only species seen more often were short-finned pilot whales, and we had more than twice as many sightings of them than the next most frequently-encountered species - rough-toothed dolphins (with three sightings). We also had good success with deployments of LIMPET satellite tags with the new elastic anchor system on short-finned pilot whales - we are currently tracking three different individuals and are hoping for long deployments as well as lots of re-sightings to be able to assess how these tags perform compared to the standard attachment system.

We need to thank a lot of people - Captain Zodiac made the work possible, and we want to thank Colin Cornforth, Cory Fults, Jason Lafferty and Brenna Lonergan. Jordan Lerma, Mark Mohler, and Russ Andrews were also critical to the success of the project. In addition, we had help from a lot of different volunteers - Andrew Aggergaard, Andrea Buskirk, Lisa Canale, Katie Cartee, Dustin Chin, Cynthia Hankins, Benji Jones, Megan Lamson, Sarah Milisen, Olivia Miller, Jana Phipps, Susan Rickards, Gabrielle Robinson, Alyssa Rodrigues, Ryan Sack, Alex Teodorescu, Jarett Trendel, Chris Warlow, Margaret Whitlock, and Patrick Zisk. Thanks to all, and to Hawaiian Adventures, Kaimana Ocean Safari, the NOAA Ship Oscar Elton Sette, and Jim Ward for reporting sightings!

If you want to learn more about the project, check out https://cascadiaresearch.org/hawaii-update/nov2023/